2010 Camaro SS Project Car - Lipsticking The Pig

Dressing up the Engine Bay on Project CP/28

We love the performance of LS engines, but we’re not deluded enough to think they actually look good, especially how they come packaged under the hood of the new Camaro. You see, GM is more concerned with how it works than how it looks, and the result is a mess of wires, hoses, and black plastic. But thanks to the aftermarket, there’s hope for the homely looking engine bay of our fifth-gens.

2/19

In the case of CP/28, our ’10 project car, we had a trade-off. Sure, the MagnaCharger looked killer, but installing it meant ditching the top cover, which hid the coil packs and a spaghetti bowl of wires. The ADM airbox certainly helped, but the rest of the engine bay was painfully stock looking. The solution was to call up a few companies and order up their wares. The best part is that most of the dress-up items on the market today are designed for easy installation.

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2010 Camaro SS Project Car - Lipsticking The Pig

20. And here’s the final result. We’re not sure it looks any less crowded, but it looks a ton less chaotic. Best of all, this little dress-up party only took us around three hours to accomplish, and in the world of hot rodding, that’s nearly instant gratification.

1. Behold the bastion of modern technology known as the engine bay of our ’10 SS project car. Of course, the price for all that tech is miles of unsightly wires and enough black plastic to choke a goat. The only attractive areas are the blower and ADM airbox.

2. Most of the wiring mess lies directly on the valve covers, and the time-tested way to fix this on LS engines are fuel-rail covers. Now, we’ve seen people get clever with cutting and modifying plastic versions to work, but we wanted to check out these new fabbed aluminum pieces (PN LN0447, $49) from Lingenfelter Performance Engineering. They even come in all the factory Camaro colors.

3. The coil covers are custom-made from 1⁄8-inch 5052 aluminum plate with MIG welded, factory-style fasteners. The edges are rolled and boxed for a very clean look, and Lingenfelter makes some to specifically to work with Magnuson superchargers.

4. Included with the coil covers are the necessary GM-style mounts for the valve covers.

5. The instructions had us zip-tie some of the PCV hoses out of the way. Moving hoses and rerouting some of the clutter is a great way to clean up the engine bay. It costs only a few bucks and a little sweat equity.

6. The coil covers required that the supercharger coolant reservoir tank be moved to the driver side inner fender. It was a little messy, but Lingenfelter included the necessary hose coupler, hose clamps, and tank bracket.

7. After a little work and tweaking of the bracket, the coolant tank was located to its new home on the driver side of the engine bay.

8. The ugly, yellow GM dipstick is, well, ugly. If you’re on a tight budget, you can rattle can it black, but for $25 Scott Drake makes this sweet billet cover (PN CA-120001-BLK). It also comes in silver and is a nice little detail.

9. The covers made a huge difference in the engine bay and really helped clean things up (or at least put the mess out of sight). But we still had a few more areas we wanted to address.

10. One of the larger pieces of black plastic is the fuse box cover. Both, Scott Drake and Show Stopper Accessories offer brushed aluminum covers for a little over $50. We wanted something a bit more custom, so Show Stopper made us an Ice Silver and carbon-fiber cover for $155. Sure, that’s more than just a few extra bucks, but the quality was top notch, and it really tied in well with the rest of our project car.

11. This wiring bundle is ugly, but it’s not like you can just ditch it.

12. The solution is this flat-black cover from Show Stopper. It’s also offered in polished, but we don’t tend to gravitate towards shiny stuff. Either finish will set you back around $55.

13. The white, plastic brake fluid reservoir was another aesthetically challenged area of the engine bay. Show Stopper offers a black or polished cover ($55), but we decided to continue the theme and went with silver and carbon. Like the fuse box cover, it ran $155, but it sure looks good. And, like the fuse box cover, it attached with 3M double-sided tape.

14. Rounding out our trifecta of custom-finished parts from Show Stopper is this ABS cover. The quality and the price was the same as the other pieces. They also offer package deals on their dress-up kits that can save you a few bucks.

15. Another eyesore is the area directly above the plastic GM radiator. The first step in fixing this was installing the Velcro-covered L-brackets from Show Stopper.

18. We also added a cover for the coolant reservoir (PN CA-120004-BLK, $45). Both companies make caps for the power steering and oil fill caps, but neither would clear our aluminum coil covers.

19. Eddie Motorsports hadn’t released their line of fifth-gen Camaro engine trinkets, but they did have these sweet bolt washers. By the time you read this there should be quite a few more items available on their website.

20. And here’s the final result. We’re not sure it looks any less crowded, but it looks a ton less chaotic. Best of all, this little dress-up party only took us around three hours to accomplish, and in the world of hot rodding, that’s nearly instant gratification.

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